I think the Chuggington flat car would work quite well with the Thomas series locos & trucks. In fact, from the pictures, it looks to be very close to the flat used in the episode featuring the blue sedan being transported over the rails. From the same photos on the web, it even looked like it had a reasonable amount of detail, too. We'll see, I have ordered a couple, just to have a look. I agree that the hoppers don't look very appropriate, but the little mine gons might be ok with a proper paint job. A lot of the Thomas items could stand some paint enhancement (at least a dull coat to reduce their high gloss), as well.

I just picked up my Chuggington flat cars at the LHS today, and although it's a bit longer than I thought it looked in the photos, I think it's acceptable, so I ordered another, too. I'm not fond of the lengthways deck planking, but I think I can fix that with a scribed styrene overlay with the scribe lines going across the car. The Moore I think about it, the more tempted I am to order a low side gon and a hopper as well, just to see if they can look any better after a run through the paint shop. I'm afraid the boxcar might require too much work to make it look right, but I might be able to use its under frame with an entirely new body scratch-built out of styrene sheet. I also model in On30, so that's also another possibility, too.

So far, all I've managed to do is open the packages and test the coupler heights with one of the Thomas red open gondolas. The Chuggington flat cars fit in well with the Thomas cars, although they are a bit longer (and heavier). My LHS' distributor was sold out of stock on most of the other Chuggington items, but at least I was able to score two of the flats. I'm still waffling on changing the deck plank direction, and also whether to use them behind my On30 industrial diesel...

Hey,railtwister, thanks for the update on the chuggington cars.I want to buy three of them and add log bunks from DETAILS WEST,#235-171,metal,4 pcs.,$4.50.BUY them fromWalthers.HAVE FUN,UPTODAY

Hi UPTODAY,I'm thinking about a culvert load made from the plastic spindles adding machine paper tape comes on. Two or three will fit on a Bachmann container flat (now discontinued), using some black or green chart pack tape for strapping (looking for the tape now). If I get really energetic, I might try to turn the ends down so they fit together, but I just might get lazy and use them as-is...Bill in FtL